Samaria is the Hellenized form of the Hebrew name Shomron, used as a historical and biblical name for the central region of Israel, bordered by Judea to the south and Galilee to the north. The region is known to the Palestinians in Arabic under two names, Samirah, and Mount Nablus.
Shiloh was an ancient city and sanctuary in ancient Israel located in the region of Samaria. According to the Hebrew Bible, Shiloh was one of the main centers of Israelite worship during the pre-monarchic period, before the First Temple in Jerusalem was built. After the Israelite conquest of Canaan, the Tabernacle was moved to Shiloh, and remained there during the period of the biblical judges.
The Bar Kokhba revolt was a large-scale armed rebellion initiated by the Jews of Judea, led by Simon bar Kokhba, against the Roman Empire in 132 CE. Lasting until 135 or early 136, it was the third and final escalation of the Jewish–Roman wars. Like the First Jewish–Roman War and the Second Jewish–Roman War, the Bar Kokhba revolt resulted in a total Jewish defeat; Bar Kokhba himself was killed by Roman troops at Betar in 135 and the Jewish rebels who remained after his death were all killed or enslaved within the next year.
The population of the region of Palestine, which approximately corresponds to modern Israel and the Palestinian territories, has varied in both size and ethnic composition throughout the history of Palestine.
Betar, also spelled Beitar, Bethar or Bether, was an ancient Jewish town in the Judaean Mountains. Continuously inhabited since the Iron Age, it was the last standing stronghold of the Bar Kokhba revolt, and was destroyed by the Imperial Roman Army under Hadrian in 135 CE.
Usha was an ancient Jewish town in the western part of Galilee. It was identified in the late 19th century by Victor Guérin, who found the ruins on which the Arab village of Hawsha was built.
Ma'ale Levona is an Israeli settlement organized as a community settlement in the West Bank. Located to the south-east of Ariel, it falls under the jurisdiction of Mateh Binyamin Regional Council. In 2022, it had a population of 1,018.
Aboud is a Palestinian village in the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate of the State of Palestine, in the central West Bank, northwest of Ramallah and 30 kilometers north of Jerusalem. Nearby towns include al-Lubban to the northeast and Bani Zeid to the northwest.
The Second Temple period or post-exilic period in Jewish history denotes the approximately 600 years during which the Second Temple stood in the city of Jerusalem. It began with the return to Zion and subsequent reconstruction of the Temple in Jerusalem, and ended with the First Jewish–Roman War and the Roman siege of Jerusalem.
Judea or Judaea is a mountainous region of the Levant. Traditionally dominated by the city of Jerusalem, it is now part of Palestine and Israel. The name's usage is historic, having been used in antiquity and still into the present day; it originates from Yehudah, a Hebrew name. Yehudah was a son of Jacob, who was later given the name "Israel" and whose sons collectively headed the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Yehudah's progeny among the Israelites formed the Tribe of Judah, with whom the Kingdom of Judah is associated. Related nomenclature continued to be used under the rule of the Babylonians, the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans. Under the Hasmoneans, the Herodians, and the Romans, the term was applied to an area larger than Judea of earlier periods. In 132 CE, the Roman province of Judaea was merged with Galilee to form the enlarged province of Syria Palaestina.
Horvat Burgin, or Burgin, is an archaeological site in the Judaean Lowlands. Settlement at the site began in the Iron Age. During the Second Temple period, it was a Jewish settlement, which was abandoned in the aftermath of the Bar Kokhba revolt. In the Byzantine period it was populated by Christians, likely including Georgian monks. In the modern period, it was a small Arab hamlet named Khirbat Umm Burj, which was depopulated in 1948.
Adullam Grove Nature Reserve is a nature reserve in central Israel, south of Beit Shemesh, managed by the Israel Nature and National Parks Protection Authority.
Khirbet Tibnah, is an archaeological site located in the West Bank, between the villages Deir Nidham and Nabi Salih. It is identified with the ancient town of Thamna.
Horvat 'Ethri, Hebrew for "Ethri ruin", Arabic name: Umm Suweid, is an archaeological site situated in the Judean Lowlands in modern-day Israel. Excavations at the site uncovered the remains of a now partially restored Jewish village of the Second Temple period, wherein are preserved an ancient synagogue, wine presses, cisterns, ritual baths and stone ossuaries, as well as an underground hideout system. The village was violently destroyed during the Bar Kokhba revolt.
Gerasa (Judaea) was an ancient Jewish town mentioned by the historian Josephus (The Jewish War, 4.9.1) as being sacked by the Imperial Roman army under Lucius Annius during the First Jewish-Roman War.
Khirbet Kurkush is an archeological site in the West Bank. It lies between the Israeli settlements of Bruchin and Ariel and near the Palestinian town of Bruqin, in the Salfit Governorate of the State of Palestine.
Artabba Fortress is a Hasmonean-Herodian fortress, discovered in 2015 by Dvir Raviv from Bar-Ilan University and Aharon Tavger from Ariel University. The site is located at the top of a hill at a height of 364 meters, is near the ravine of Wadi Artabba, also known as Nahal Natuf, southeast of the Palestinian village of Deir Abu Mash'al in the West Bank.
Khirbet Kelefa is an archeological site of a Jewish settlement from the Second Temple period tio the end of the Bar Kokhba revolt. The site is located about 2 km southeast to the village of Surif.
Khirbet Jamjum is an archeological site located at the western part of Gush Etzion, in the West Bank. It is situated on top of a high hill with cliff walls surrounding on three of its sides. The site was surveyed in the 1990s and excavated in 2005 and 2008.
Bir ed-Duwali is an ancient archeological site with the remains of a Jewish settlement established in the early Hasmonean period up to the second year of the First Jewish–Roman War. After the revolt, there was a settlement gap, with the site only repopulated in the Late Roman period, up until the early Muslim period. The site is located 820m above sea level, on a narrow ridge, 2.5 km northeast of Giv'at Ze'ev and southwest to Beitunia.
